In manufacturing of an aircraft, aerodynamic structures such as wing panels are joined to the fuselage or to other structures of the aircraft. Traditionally, mechanical butt joints are used in which a portion of the wing may be butted up to a portion of the fuselage and joined via mechanical joints, using bolts, rivets and devices such as ribs and so forth. In these traditional butt joints, the bolts and ribs of the joint are used to meet the bearing requirements for the joint. Thus, sufficient bolts and other mechanical fastening devices must be used to meet the bearing allowable for the material used in the aircraft design.
Mechanical joints, particularly those with many bolts, may be very heavy which corresponds to more aircraft weight and increased operational cost. Further, production cost associated with mechanical joints may be significant because the joints are formed separately from the joined panels which takes up production time (labor, equipment and so forth) and the joints include many different parts (ribs, bolts and so forth) which must also be fabricated. In addition, bolted joints may experience fatigue over the long term and accordingly must analyzed periodically, maintained and replaced, further increasing operational costs. Thus, although desirable results have been achieved using traditional joints for aerodynamic structures, there is room for improvement.